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外国记者在新罕布什尔州曼彻斯特市附近的高富森镇的一次集会上，倾听共和党总统参选人罗恩•保罗的一位支持者发表见解。

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Cecil Wentum, right, interviews New Hampshire Representative Charlie Bass just before the state's Republic presidential primary.

Washington — When Americans go the polls November 6 to chose their president, 22 journalists from around the world will be watching with a new understanding of how the candidates were selected to compete for America’s highest office.

The journalists, through a program sponsored by the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, visited seven U.S. cities between January 9 and January 20 to observe campaign operations, talk with voters and hear about the electoral process from experts.

Some were surprised by what they learned. Cecil Wentum, assistant program controller at the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation, said he learned that Americans with different opinions have the right to openly express their concerns. In Manchester, New Hampshire, he saw supporters of opposing Republican candidates gather near the area where candidate Newt Gingrich rallied support during a typical town hall meeting — this one held at a small restaurant with mostly Latino customers.

At the site of a New Hampshire televised candidates’ debate, Occupy movement members were vocal about their views, yet “polite” to onlookers, said Federico Ibañez, a reporter for Infobae América in Argentina.

Ibanez learned about America’s Electoral College, a system in which Americans vote for electors who pledge to vote for a presidential candidate. The number of electors corresponds to the number in a state’s congressional delegation.

He also learned how important gun ownership is to many New Hampshire residents. “They have guns not because they are violent but because they see ownership as a freedom,” he said.

In Tampa, Florida, the entire group met with a commissioner of elections and learned the steps in the voting process and how voting machines are used to register and tally votes.

The journalists then split into three groups — with one going to Des Moines, Iowa; one to Little Rock, Arkansas; and one to Indianapolis, Indiana — before reuniting in Washington.

CAMPAIGN COSTS, SALARIES SURPRISE

A surprise for Mario Cruz, managing editor of Excelsior newspaper in Mexico City, was that candidates “can spend as much as they want on television ads within campaign spending regulations.”

The range of salaries for elected officials also was a revelation. For instance, Cruz learned that in New Hampshire, state legislators earn only $100 a year (basically a volunteer post), while Florida pays its legislators about $30,000 a year.

Vitor Abdala, a reporter for Agência Brasil, said he was impressed that some Americans travel far from their homes to show their support of candidates. He said he met one woman who came from her southern U.S. home to show her support for Ron Paul just before the Republican primary election in the northern state of New Hampshire.

Mahmoud Addanou, foreign affairs editor of Alray Alaam newspaper in Sudan, had a similar observation. “I asked one woman why she was out in the cold in the early morning showing her support for a candidate. No one paid her,” he said. “She said she’s a volunteer who wants to participate.” He added that in the future he will look back on his experiences in the United States as inspiration to encourage people to participate in their communities.

İdil Güngör, a television correspondent for Al-Jazeera in Ankara, Turkey, observed that the economy could be a deciding topic in the election. “People are looking for a larger vision for the future,” she said. Güngör learned that face-to-face communication is valued. “It’s important for Americans to shake hands,” she observed.

Many of the journalists said the experience would inform their coverage of American politics, but many also found broader value. For instance, Wentum brought recording equipment from Ghana and interviewed Americans he met for a documentary he planned to make when he returned home.

American volunteerism was a key element of the trip, which coincided with celebrations of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. The birthday of King, an influential civil rights leader of the 1960s, is celebrated as a national day of community service in January.

On that day, Ibraheem Shehu Musa, Kaduna bureau chief of Media Trust Newspapers Limited in Nigeria, joined others in his group and members of his host community to volunteer at a Salvation Army facility in Little Rock.

“We passed out food to the homeless, did the dishes and mopped the floors,” he said. “It was a very humbling experience.” When he returns home to Kaduna, he wants to organize people “to say ‘look, we don’t have to rely on the government for everything. We can volunteer.’”